Note: Citations are based on reference standards. However, formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study. The specific requirements or preferences of your reviewing publisher, classroom teacher, institution or organization should be applied.

The authority of the Bible and the rise of the modern world

This engrossing book demonstrates that the "cradle" (James Barr) of biblical criticism really lay in the English-speaking world and that subsequent problems actually began in England in the period between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. During this time, attempts were still being made on a regular basis to reconcile the content of the Bible with the questioning of it which was evolving as the result of new scientific discoveries and the development of new moral criteria. In this interdisciplinary study, Professor Reventlow leads the reader into the total context of the life and thought in which new ideas about the Bible came to birth. Beginning with the insights of early humanism and the spiritualist movements of the Reformation, and moving through the Puritans to a climax with the Deists, Reventlow traces the fascinating and complex history of biblical criticism, always emphasizing the close connection between theology, philosophical systems, and church politics. He illuminates the significance of the intellectual and constitutional development in England for the modern understanding of the Bible, and conversely, he highlights the role of the Bible in that development. The importance of this book is threefold. It is historical. It gives us insight into the way biblical understanding is achieved. And it helps us "understand how we ourselves work and think" (James Barr). If we are to answer the theological questions of our time, it is Reventlow's contention that the reply must "pioneer its way out of its past." For "only a careful survey of the way we have come so far can clarify existing intrinsic presuppositions and help us to overcome them by making us aware of them." -- from back cover.Read more...

Arriving at the starting point: The cultural situation in the centuries before the Reformation --
Erasmus --
The 'Left wing of the Reformation' --
Martin Bucer --
The age of the Puritans --
Lord Herbert of Cherbury: His epistemology and philosophy of religion --
Thomas Hobbes: The philosophical pressuppositions of his Biblical criticism --
The latitudinarians --
The beginning of the deistic debatds --
Forms of apologetic --
The heyday of Deism --
The late phase.

Other Titles:

Bibelautorität und Geist der Moderne.

Responsibility:

Henning Graf Reventlow.

Abstract:

This engrossing book demonstrates that the "cradle" (James Barr) of biblical criticism really lay in the English-speaking world and that subsequent problems actually began in England in the period between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. During this time, attempts were still being made on a regular basis to reconcile the content of the Bible with the questioning of it which was evolving as the result of new scientific discoveries and the development of new moral criteria. In this interdisciplinary study, Professor Reventlow leads the reader into the total context of the life and thought in which new ideas about the Bible came to birth. Beginning with the insights of early humanism and the spiritualist movements of the Reformation, and moving through the Puritans to a climax with the Deists, Reventlow traces the fascinating and complex history of biblical criticism, always emphasizing the close connection between theology, philosophical systems, and church politics. He illuminates the significance of the intellectual and constitutional development in England for the modern understanding of the Bible, and conversely, he highlights the role of the Bible in that development. The importance of this book is threefold. It is historical. It gives us insight into the way biblical understanding is achieved. And it helps us "understand how we ourselves work and think" (James Barr). If we are to answer the theological questions of our time, it is Reventlow's contention that the reply must "pioneer its way out of its past." For "only a careful survey of the way we have come so far can clarify existing intrinsic presuppositions and help us to overcome them by making us aware of them." -- from back cover.